Drop Walls
Drop walls are a type of military equipment utilized by HU for a large variety of reasons, from defense to containment, and even redirection of floods and mud flows. The main point of the DW's is the quick deployment of a wall-like structure into a specific area; the high speed with which this may be accomplished with DW's has allowed HU to turn indefensible locations into defensible ones in just a few minutes, contain infected individuals and enemies to a specific area, and some designs even allow for their use in containing and redirecting certain natural disasters, minimizing collateral damage. There are many different models and types of DW's, designed for a large variety of uses and deployments, and all of them are sorted under two main categories-Military and Civilian-as well as two sub-categories, man-portable and ship-deployed. Man-portable Military DW Models The main purpose of MPDW models are to provide soldiers in the field with optimal mobile cover, even if there is none present in the area. These models range from the basic MPDW-004, an early design purely to provide cover, to the MPDW-066, designed for an array of offensive and defensive attachments in addition to providing cover. MPDW-004 the 004 model was an early design concept, made when HU was first conceptualizing of the idea of this type of military equipment. The idea behind the 004 was that in some locations HU troops would be deployed in, there would be open or exposed areas where they would lack cover and therefore would be at a disadvantage to any hostile forces, or, alternatively, they may encounter a bottleneck they wish to take advantage of. In these situations, the 004, folded up into a one foot by two foot rectangle and hooked to a special harness attached to a soldier's back, would be tossed to, or dropped at, a specific advantageous location, where it would activate it's supports and unfold it's thick armor plating, which could survive most small-arms fire. While more advanced models have been developed in the ensuing years, HU has seen no reason to phase out the 004; due to it's simple design and heavy armor, it is by far the most reliable and hardiest of the MPDW models, making up for it's lack of installed equipment. MPDW-009 One of the first MPDW models to play with the idea of installing support equipment to increase the effectiveness of the MPDW line, the 009 utilized the most advanced of defensive technology of the time while reducing it's armor to compensate. These improvements included one of the earliest models of the PICS, as well as the capability to calculate the angles and velocity of at least some of incoming fire and deflect it instead of stopping it, reducing energy needs greatly. However, due to the inefficiency of early PICS models and the limited power storage that could be built into the device, the effectiveness of the 009 was severely limited, and it was phased out as more advanced models were designed. MPDW-017 A much more advanced defensive unit than the 009, the 017 utilized a far more efficient model of the PICS, allowing for decreased power storage needs and the ability to generate multiple shifting particle plates, which reduced the likeliness of one being forced to reform, and it was given more armoring, making the possibility of hostile fire disabling it far less likely. However, while much of the design was changed, the 017 retained the internal processing necessary to calculate incoming trajectories and deflect rounds, though the 017's hardware was superior to the 009's. While more advanced models have evolved, the 017 still remains in use.